Defending harmful tax practices: mining companies’ responses to the Australian Senate Inquiry into tax avoidance

This article examines the Australian Senate’s 2015–2017 inquiry into corporate tax avoidance to illuminate the tax strategies used by the multinational corporations (MNCs) most targeted by tax justice campaigners, versus those of particular relevance in an Australian context: mining companies. Using documentary analysis, we examine how these companies discursively defended their tax avoidance strategies. Despite differences in the context in which the issue of tax minimisation has risen to prominence, we show that in Australia, MNCs’ legitimacy in paying lower levels of tax has been challenged in a similar manner to that of MNCs in other industry sectors that were held responsible for post-global financial crisis austerity measures in states like the US and UK. This suggests that history and context matter not in and of themselves, but for the impact they have on the discursive power of the actors involved, depending on the visibility and salience of the issue associated with them.     

Taxing the Poor: The Politics of Income Taxation in Ireland

Income tax is the largest single means of generating revenue in modern states, and its impact is felt by virtually all members of society. How it is levied is therefore a matter of the highest political significance. Yet countries vary greatly in the manner in which they allocate the burden of paying income tax. In Ireland, the profile of income tax has changed dramatically throughout the course of economic modernization, since about 1960. By 1980 it was generally agreed that employees were carrying too much of the burden, especially those on fairly low incomes. Steady growth in recent years has enabled governments to cut tax rates while still bringing in rising revenue. But shifting the distribution of tax has proved very difficult, and tax reform has tended to favor the wealthy most. This article draws on comparative political science literature to highlight the political and institutional variables relevant to explaining these trends.
"The Chancellor of the Exchequer is a man whose duties make him more or less of a taxing machine. He is entrusted with a certain amount of misery which it is his duty to distribute as fairly as he can" (Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, (Liberal), Hansard, 1870, April 11, col. 1639).     

Globalisation and the dilemmas of income taxation in Australia

Over the past two decades there has been a worldwide fall in statutory corporate tax (CT) rates. Focusing on Australia, this article establishes three empirical facts which challenge much of the existing literature. First, CT competition was the crucial driving force behind CT cuts. Second, policy makers had to abandon tax‐related investment incentives in order to pay for lower CT rates. This broadening of the CT base is costly, because it potentially disadvantages domestic firms and may, over the longer term, erode the CT base. Third, CT cuts have put pressure on the personal income tax base, as low corporate rates provide tax avoidance opportunities for high‐income earners.     

SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGETARY ELECTIONS: A COST REDISTRIBUTE PROCEDURE?

This article examines, theoretically and empirically, school district budgetary election voting behavior. In the study it is argued that the change from fiscally independent to state-funds dependent school district operations may have altered the traditional cost/quantity-based school budgetary voting behavior. With the assumption of state aid schemes to school districts, the school district budgetary election processes may have become political procedures by which the cost of school district operations has been distributed to broader tax bases.     

THE NET FISCAL IMPACT OF SELECTED FEDERAL BLOCK GRANT PROGRAMS*

This paper examines the net fiscal benefits of various federal grants and taxes paid to finance them. Net, effective tax rates are calculated for all county areas in the U.S. for seven measured grant programs, and the distributions of such tax rates are examined in conjunction with the median family incomes of the county areas. Inferences about the progressivity (or regressivity) of the grant programs are made, as well as inferences about the horizontal equity of the grant programs through the use of a new class of index numbers. It was found that more progressive grant formulas, which provide greater rates of subsidy to areas with lower median family incomes, also tend to be less horizontally equitable.     

Financing Decentralized Development in a Low‐Income Country: Raising Revenue for Local Government in Uganda

Uganda has been engaged for a number of years in an ambitious programme of political and financial decentralization involving significantly expanded expenditure and service delivery responsibilities for local governments in what are now forty‐five districts. Fiscal decentralization has involved allocation of block grants from the centre to complement increased local tax revenue‐raising efforts by districts and municipalities. This article is concerned with the financial side of decentralization and in particular with an examination of district government efforts to raise revenue with the tax instruments which have been assigned to them. These are found to be deficient in a number of ways and their tax raising potential not to be commensurate with the responsibilities being devolved. Achievement of the decentralization aims laid down, therefore, must depend either on the identification of new or modified methods of raising revenue locally, or increased commitment to transfer of financial resources from the centre, or both.     

从“社”到“庄”:清代前期山东寿光县顺庄法的推行

清康熙年间,山东寿光县为缓解"大差"负担,将"大差"由轮当制改为下放给各社自理,但这进一步加重了民间劈社的窘境。乾隆年间知县王椿在缺少土地记录的情况下,采用"顺庄法"重整地方组织,缓解赋税征收的困境。以百姓实际居住的"庄",取代官方登记的里甲组织"社",作为税收登记与征收的基本单位。同时,这也形成了山东以"村庄"为基层组织的地方社会。因南北土地分布状况的差异,顺庄法在山东与江南显示出不同的形态与结果。     

元代云南赋税征银考

历史上云南是我国白银主要产地之一,元世祖平大理后,云南与内地间的经济联系进一步加强,蒙元政府结合云南实际,采取了为当地各族民众接受的赋税征银政策,通过差发征银、税粮折银、银矿课税、土司贡赋纳银等等途径,取得了相当数量的白银。蒙元政府进而通过出钞收银、以贝易银等途径,将所取得的白银转输内地。元代云南赋税征银,仍属于实物税,与内地的货币税有较大差别。但对云南白银矿企业的发展和内地白银货币化起到了积极的推动作用。     

论民国时期的营业税税率与税负

营业税是民国时期从西方引进的一种现代税收制度,随国家政治与社会经济形势的变化而不断调整。作为税收制度的核心要素,民国时期营业税税率经历了从北洋政府时期的定额税率向南京政府时期的比例税率的转变。在南京国民政府的分税制体制下,地方营业税税率设计存在差别比例税率和单一比例税率两种模式。抗战和内战期间,国民政府逐步统一及大幅提高营业税税率以增加财政收入。营业税纳税人实际税负的增加是税率因素与非税率因素共同作用的结果。民国时期营业税在成为政府重要收入来源的同时,也给工商业经济和普通民众带来沉重的税收负担。     

INFLATION, PROGRESSIVITY, AND STATE INCOME TAX REVENUES

The combination of progressive income tax structures and inflation has led to significant increases in state income tax revenues. While the federal government has de facto indexed the federal personal income tax, states have generated large relative and absolute increases in their income tax revenues. This paper shows that the ratio of income tax revenues to personal income has grown significantly more in states with progressive income tax structures than those with proportional tax structures. Almost half of such increases may be attributed to inflation. The increase in the relative share of income tax as a source of state revenues has recently run into resistance in some states which have installed income tax indexation measures. This may suggest that the marginal cost of raising revenue through inflation, relative to other means (taxes), is reaching its limits.     

赋役制度与政区边界——基于明清湘鄂西地区的考察

在湘鄂西地区,从明初至清雍正年间,土司、卫所等特殊形式的政区与经制州县政区在地理空间上都是彼此毗邻乃至交错的。不同类型的政区意味着不同的赋役制度与管理方式,在土司、卫所与州县势力彼此消长的背景下,更导致了种种土地纠纷与赋役规避问题。清雍正间,通过改卫归流与改土归流,三者之间的土地与赋役纠纷随着卫所、土司的取消与州县政区主体地位的确立而逐渐消弭。     

Teachers' Attitudes and the Success of School Choice

The 1990s witnessed growing attention to the adoption of choice-based school reforms, particularly charter schooling and school vouchers. Although researchers have approached the school choice debate from theoretical, normative, and empirical directions, little attention has been paid to examining how teachers view school choice or what factors shape their attitudes. This oversight is significant because teachers can impact the success of school choice experiments in many ways, such as through their willingness to launch and staff schools of choice, adopt new practices developed in schools of choice, and support choice-based reform efforts in their unions and communities. Using a survey of Arizona and Nevada teachers, we find that White, experienced, unionized, Democratic educators and those working in a "positive" school environment are less supportive of school choice. Arizona teachers, who live in close approximation of a free market for education, are particularly hostile to choice, but teachers who have had personal contact with a charter school are more supportive. The results indicate that the success of school choice will likely be influenced by the characteristics of the teacher workforce and teachers' familiarity with competition.     

THE NORMATIVE BASES OF TAX REFORM: A CONSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

This paper examines the explicit and implicit ideological content of tax reform embodied in three views of taxation. By adopting a constitutional perspective, we are led to examine tax reform as a mechanism by which those rules which define the tax constitution are to be modified as circumstances change. Not only is tax reform demonstrated to be a continuous rather than a dichotomous process, but our proffered framework has the advantage of highlighting the normative underpinnings of the three instant views of tax reform.     

The Politics of an Emergent Global Regime for Controlling Tax Competition

This article probes what I call the emergent global regime for controlling tax competition. Since at least the early 1990s, states have perceived that competition for investment, whether through direct subsidies or tax incentives, threatens to undermine the fiscal underpinnings of the modern state, particularly in terms of its provision of social welfare programs. As states have provided financial or fiscal subsidies to capital (especially mobile capital), they have had to compensate through some combination of imposing higher levels of taxation on other actors, running higher deficits, and cutting spending. Each has shown itself to have substantial problems, and the response of states has now come full circle: to reconsider the competition for investment that causes the fiscal problems in the first place.     

Population density and the accuracy of the land valuations in the 1798 federal direct tax

Abstract

The peculiar operation of the 1798 federal direct tax has led scholars to question whether tax officials reported the land valuations from their districts faithfully. Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson argue that southern tax assessors systemically under reported the value of southern real estate, and they adjust their income estimates to account for the likelihood of corruption. This paper affirms the reliability of the tax returns by demonstrating that population density, rather than corruption or lax enforcement, can explain nearly all of the variation between the assessment districts. Accepting the tax valuations as accurate would lower Lindert and Williamson’s income estimates, imply slower growth rate between 1774 and 1800, and suggest a higher growth rate between 1800 and 1850.     

Could Privatization Increase the Efficiency of Tax Administration in Less-Developed Countries?

In spite of the fact that state tax collection systems in less-developed countries generally are characterized by high levels of tax evasion and official corruption, little experimentation with privatized tax collection has occurred in these countries. This is due in part to: (1) The fact that the literature on privatization has not focused on tax collection, and (2) the existence of prevalent misconceptions regarding the effects of privatized tax collection in earlier periods. This paper uses agency theory and privatization research to discover the conditions under which privatized tax collection may be an efficient alternative to state tax collection, and to show that these conditions are present in many less-developed countries.     

Choosing Health? Exploring Children's Eating Practices at Home and at School

Abstract:  This paper considers the influences on children's eating habits in both school and home spaces in the UK. Since 2002 the UK government has been committed to halting the increase in child obesity rates, and has sanctioned particular parental and school based practices as more "healthy" than others. This study examines this through critically questioning, in particular, the classed discourses written into health education advice and advocates a new way of thinking about health education messages. Based on qualitative research with children from one secondary school and with eight families in the North of England the paper reveals that while parents and children make decisions about their lives with reference to dominant discourses about ideal "healthy" family eating practices, their ability to realise these practices is limited in numerous ways. Moreover, the influences on children's eating habits in both home and school spaces are intricately interrelated and children's practices are clearly influenced by the spaces they inhabit. Their decisions involve balancing health education knowledge with a range of other knowledges that are bound up in the socio-spatial relations of their everyday lives. A holistic approach to understanding children's eating habits therefore requires a critical understanding of class background, parental influences and contemporary parenting practices as well as the microgeographical relations found in the school dining room.     

School Choice in Milwaukee

For decades educational reformers have identified school choice programs as a strategy for restructuring public school systems. Practically every state has considered or adopted a school assignment program that qualifies as a "choice" initiative, one in which students and parents have some choice in school selection. Increasingly, school districts are contemplating plans that include a choice of private, as well as public, schools. One of the most far-reaching of these school choice plans is the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Parental Choice Program, which, as legislated, allows parents to use vouchers to enroll their children in both sectarian and nonsectarian schools in the community. This paper explores the evolution of school choice in Milwaukee and examines the extent to which school choice is representative of other privatization efforts currently under way in the United States.     

Stigmatized ethnicity, public health, and globalization

The prejudicial linking of infection with ethnic minority status has a long-established history, but in some ways this association may have intensified under the contemporary circumstances of the "new public health" and globalization. This study analyzes this conflation of ethnicity and disease victimization by considering the stigmatization process that occurred during the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto. The attribution of stigma during the SARS outbreak occurred in multiple and overlapping ways informed by: (i) the depiction of images of individuals donning respiratory masks; (ii) employment status in the health sector; and (iii) Asian-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian ethnicity. In turn, stigmatization during the SARS crisis facilitated a moral panic of sorts in which racism at a cultural level was expressed and rationalized on the basis of a rhetoric of the new public health and anti-globalization sentiments. With the former, an emphasis on individualized self-protection, in the health sense, justified the generalized avoidance of those stigmatized. In relation to the latter, in the post-9/11 era, avoidance of the stigmatized other was legitimized on the basis of perceiving the SARS threat as a consequence of the mixing of different people predicated by economic and cultural globalization.     

Norms,coercion and contracting in the struggle against ‘harmful’ tax competition

The world's richest and most powerful countries have become increasingly concerned about revenue lost to tax havens, and fear that tax competition might spark a fiscal ‘race to the bottom’, yet they have failed to pressure much smaller and weaker tax haven states into reform. This article argues that the OECD-sponsored campaign against ‘harmful’ tax competition has been unsuccessful because regulative norms have severely constrained the means legitimately able to be employed. Early decisions on how the campaign was designed subsequently brought norms into play which have not only ruled out the use of coercion, but also the use of side payments, despite the massive potential benefits available to both sides from a deal between tax havens and OECD states. The failure to strike a deal cannot be explained by high transaction costs nor by corporate lobbying in defence of tax shelters. Regulative norms can thus affect economic bargaining in the international arena by preventing mutually advantageous exchanges that are nevertheless regarded as inappropriate.